Los Angeles pop artist Keni Titus shares her latest single “if u want”, along with a heavenly music video directed by Keni and her best friend, Victoria. Returning with her first song of the year, since her track “Come Back” in 2022, Keni has spent the last year writing a lot of new music, using songwriting primarily as a way to reflect on her experiences and relationships to date, and “if u want” is a product of that process.
The track is beautifully delicate and melodic, touching on intimate themes of companionship and desire. In her heartfelt lyricism, Keni expresses a desire to be all that someone needs her to be, in whatever shape or form that may take. Despite not having met that person yet, she can envision it in all its loving togetherness.
Keni passionately sings, “If u want I could fit right in the gaps of your teeth. If u want cover my mouth so there’s more air to breathe” “If u want” is the first single to be taken from her upcoming debut project, which is expected to come out later this year, along with more singles on the way preceding the project’s release. All in all, this track signifies the start of a new era in her career, with many exciting things to come from this artist on the rise.
The DIY style music video accompanying the single, shows Keni fully immersed in nature, surrounded by a flowing body of water and glimmering in the sunlight. It has a blissful, glowing energy about it, which perfectly compliments the track.
Adams & Costello are excited to share their second single, “Worry About You” from forthcoming LP, One By One. The track showcases relevant social issues that run rampant throughout the world, and the bitter numbness society has accepted in response.
“Worry About You” describes the cycle of life, one’s experience with humanity and desire to make the world a better place. At the center of the track we see Michael Costello’s sincere songwriting and empathy for mankind among the inevitable transitions we face. Themes of love, loss, and humanity are demonstrated, allowing the track to become an ode to strengthening human nature.
When discussing the songwriting inspiration for “Worry About You”, Michael Costello writes: “This song came to me after going through some deep personal loss. It’s about life’s experiences, getting older, having to care for the people who cared for you, caring for our loved ones, and having empathy for the loved ones of others...maybe strangers to me, but our fellow mankind. It was written fairly quickly and then I brought it to Julie and we evolved it together”
On “Worry About You”, Michael Costello’s guttural vocals draw comparisons to Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Leonard Cohen. Along with his impeccable guitar strumming, the track makes for an atmospheric listening experience. To balance Costello’s husky tone, Julie Adams’s airy background vocals add a refreshing vibe to the mix.
In the video, one half of the duo Michael Costello is seen strumming his guitar around various parts of the American landscape. In the span of four minutes, we see a world affected by homelessness, gun violence, and climate change, amongst other cultural issues.
Known for their innate talent for crafting beautifully written songs, the Western Australian-based duo, The Money War, was just released their heartrending new EP 'I Don't Hear You Anymore' on Friday, June 23.
Infusing their music with unwavering sincerity, Dylan Ollivierre and Carmen Pepper skillfully blend elegant pop purity with the resolute spirit of indie rock and folk, resulting in captivating melodies and refined production that eloquently capture their intricate experiences.
In 'I Don't Hear You Anymore', The Money War demonstrates their adeptness at navigating tender stories of love, loss, change, and the desperate need for self-expression. This collection of songs, which is both authentic and relatable, allows The Money War to express their innermost thoughts and emotions as they navigate the challenges of raising three young children. Each track on the EP offers a unique and heartfelt experience, beautifully encapsulating the duo's emotive lyricism and undeniable talent, and showcasing their profound artistic depth.
Speaking about the tracks on the EP, Dylan Ollivierre notes, "The songs are special to me because they remind me of moments in the last year where I felt desperate to express myself." As a full-time producer who is consistently occupied with other people's music, time dedicated to The Money War is limited. Ollivierre further explains, "Every now and then, I have this insatiable desire to create something that embodies my own vision and expresses Carmen and me as The Money War. In the past, we often had numerous songs to choose from, but nowadays, with three young kids, our time has significantly decreased. Therefore, a song only progresses beyond the 'idea' stage if it strongly demands to be realized."
On the surface, they're charming in their sweet simplicity – effortlessly compelling thanks to graceful melodies, heartfelt lyricism, and syncopated synergy. But the deeper you dig, the more Toronto duo TANDM's songs seem to transcend time, place, and even stylistic categorization.
Their forthcoming collection, Sirens (out July 26th), finds the duo teeing up their most engaging and enveloping output to date – a potent distillation of the magical individual components that comprise TANDM's masterful take on alternative pop but with a newfound polish and elevated production style.
Their diss track, "2quick2trust," was inspired from negative experiences in their music and personal lives, where they felt that many people have tried to take advantage of them. From having people try to steal their music, take advantage of their band, take advantage of them as humans, TANDM wrote this track as a response.
When we started TANDM, our kindness, generosity, and innocence was taken advantage of, and that put us in a really bad place for confidence and trust in the music industry. This track is a confident clap back at those who have wronged us in the past, proving that all they were to us was 'nameless' and 'song material.' – frontwoman Maxine Beck-Sinderby
Endless Forms - Make Me Feel Too Much. Endless Forms was started by writer and producer Justin Allen in 2015 with the release of his debut album ‘Lazarus’ – a thoughtful album reaching out for a cathartic answer to life’s looming existential questions. Endless Forms’ subsequent releases – 2017’s ‘If There Were Water’, 2020’s ‘More Than Candy’ and 2022’s ‘Electric Heat Hypnotized’ each dive progressively further into the fractal, sonically evolving with each release into a dreamy marriage of deep atmosphere, layered rhythms, and earnest lyrics.
‘Make Me Feel Too Much’ is the third track taken from his pending album ‘The House of Love’ – the most intimate and personal album Allen has ever released. A somber, slow-building song that encapsulates the feeling of life “getting large and the stakes start getting high”. The track highlights the feeling of when things become too much, you almost start to feel numb.
He said of the new single: “I always imagined that ‘Make Me Feel Too Much’ could be played live entirely by four people. So many of my recording sessions get really out of hand with tons and tons of tracks, and I wanted to make something that could be played by some kind of Frank Sinatra-esque backing band. I was also listening to a lot of Aphex Twin at the time, and was really inspired by some his weird reverbs, where it sounds like you are inside some impossibly massive metal building. I wanted it to feel like it was in a space like that.”
“Lyrically, the song is a great microcosm for the whole album…There’s a Carl Jung quote that goes “the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” What if that massive, scary pool of emotion is actually a sort of gateway into something extremely real and beautiful? How might we have to change in order to let ourselves sink into that pool?”
The Kut is back with her latest single 'Runaways'. Written around a rolling bass-line, it’s a feel-good track about spending the summer outdoors.
Well it certainly seems to have been for good reason… ‘Runaways’ is the sixth single to release from her sophomore album ‘GRIT’ - a record that reached Number 1 in the Official UK Rock Albums Chart, after years of grassroots touring.
So it’s all the more sweet that ‘Runaways’ releases on the back of tours she and the collective played supporting US rockers Electric Six and Japanese punk-pop band Shonen Knife in the last few months.
The single animation shares a glimpse of the frustration, determination and hopefulness of an independent band on the road.
Bristol-based alt-rock two-piece Pollyanna Blue are pleased to announce the release of their upcoming debut studio EP ‘Trials and Tribulations’ on June 23rd 2023.
Formed in the summer of 2019, Pollyanna Blue is led by Zoe Collins (guitar and vocals) and Rich Earle (Bass and vocals). Although based in different cities, the pandemic forced the band to really utilise the digital age, writing tracks back and forth online before travelling to Bristol to complete them in person.
Their name was inspired by a self help book ‘Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway’, which talks about a nickname ‘Pollyanna’, typically given to a person who is deemed overly optimistic. That ethos, blended with the waves of difficult emotions life throws at you, creates a concept of musical juxtaposition within a 90s/00s alt rock atmosphere which sees the duo wield their self discovery, vulnerability and love of music to create something authentic and raw to connect with anyone experiencing some type of hardship.
Following up on the April release of their latest celebrated single Stray, comes their debut studio EP Trials & Tribulations, recorded with Ash Scott (Memorist, Harper, Aniimalia). The title of the EP was inspired by personal and abstract experiences, from the trials of being in a band that started right before a pandemic, to the personal tribulations of battling with your own mental health.
Ariana Delawari is an Afghan-American musician, activist and filmmaker. Her film We Came Home (2013) documents her family, her travels to and from Afghanistan over a ten year period, in which Delawari recorded her first album. That album, Lion of Panjshir, was released on David Lynch’s record label to great acclaim.
The events that transpired during the recording of her new album, I Will Remember, were even more personally significant and traumatic, as Delawari’s mother and brother-in-law both passed away and she saw her home country fall to the Taliban. Delawari explains:
“I started to write about my mother, about living and dying, Earth and Heaven, Afghanistan and my life growing up in America, refugees, love of different forms, and about the social justice and environmental justice themes that my mom taught me about which shaped my own activism as well. I never could have imagined that COVID-19 would hit a few months before she died, and that I would lose her during quarantine. I’ll never forget the day I wheeled her up to a nurse in a hazmat suit at a sidewalk and couldn’t even kiss her goodbye.”
“I never could have imagined that just as I was finishing the album, a little over a year later, we Afghans would lose Afghanistan to the Taliban. Afghanistan is my whole heart, it is the cause of my entire lifetime and all of my activism. I am a very loud anti-Taliban Peace Activist, so the fall of the country was my biggest nightmare coming true.”
Ora Cogan has announced the August 25 release of her new album Formless via Prism Tongue Records. Along with the announcement the cinematic singer-songwriter shares the VHS/Super 8 video for the first single “Cowgirl”, a haunted acid trip of intense sorrow, deep solitude, and dark nights of the soul.
“Cowgirl” is a psychedelic, country slow jam reckoning with social isolation in grief. The ghostly guitar lines blanket ethereal vocals to create a twilight landscape of deep solitude, setting the stage for show work or a saloon brawl.
Formless, finds beauty, absurdity, humor, and unlikely joy in the bleakest of times. Cogan’s smoky, psychedelic approach to gothic country and hazy folk merges with post-punk, groove, psych rock, and traditional balladry. With a singular voice as much sensation as sound, Ora Cogan seeks out new realities within the smoke-and-mirrors labyrinth of our cruel society.
“Writing this album was a very much a lifeline… transformative and healing,” Cogan recalled. “Re-calibrating an internal compass constantly thrown off by the magnetism of a deranged world.”
Raised by a photographer and a singer-songwriter on the islands of Canada’s Pacific coast, where she once again resides, Cogan shaped her approach to music far from big-city scenes. Her childhood home played host to a constant stream of artists as it served as a professional recording studio. Cogan absorbed a myriad of influences from Édith Piaf, Ladino and Rumbetico to Karen Dalton, and American country blues, all feeding into her glacial and cinematic yet tinglingly intimate sound.
Known for their vivacious performance style, genre-defying sound, soaring harmonies, and ability to make music-magic happen everywhere from subway platforms to concert halls, Bandits on the Run kick off a tour with the release of “Radio” and an appearance at Milwaukee Summerfest, opening for Deer Tick and The Avett Brothers.
Formed upon a chance encounter while busking in the subways of New York City, Bandits on the Run have become modern troubadours, the flower children of the digital age. The Brooklyn-based indie-pop-Americana trio is anchored by three-part harmonies and eclectic instrumentation, including accordion, cello, melodica, and a suitcase-kick-drum. Since their first release, 2017’s, The Criminal Record, they’ve received accolades from NPR Music’s All Songs Considered, American Songwriter, NPR Weekend Edition, and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. Their most recent EP, 2021’s Now Is The Time, was produced by Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers). This year has seen a new phase in Banditry, with band members Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn jointly producing their own recordings for the first time.
“‘Radio’ was written at a time when I felt like I was living in a funhouse mirror... I was dealing with intense feelings of anxiety, dissociation, and dread about the state of the world and the state of my place in it. Many songwriters talk about songwriting as therapy, and I suppose that's true in this case, though it felt a bit more like expelling demons -- and does simultaneously reveling and revolting in your own inner world of absurdity count as a coping mechanism? Who's to say? I do know the bones of this song poured out of me all at once, and afterward, I felt lighter, freer,” Shepherd says. “I shared it with Adrian and Regina the very day it was born, and their brilliant care and thoughts and arrangements crafted it into the beautiful wild entity it is today. We've performed this song out many times (after I got over the weirdness of singing a Bandits song without a cello in my hand), and many folks have come up to us after shows and expressed a kinship with this song, and gratitude for giving a safe space to work out some darkness and dance with their own skeletons.”
Old Crow Medicine Show - Miles Away (Feat. Willie Watson).
Old Crow Medicine Show announces the August 25 release of their new album Jubilee via ATO Records. Arriving as the two-time GRAMMY award-winning band gears up to celebrate their 25th anniversary, Jubilee finds the group once again co-producing with Matt Ross-Spang (Drive-By Truckers, St. Paul & the Broken Bones) and recording at their own Hartland Studios.
The album features appearances from legendary soul singer Mavis Staples and singer/songwriter Sierra Ferrell. Along with the announcement, the band shares the debut single “Miles Away,” a sweetly reflective track co-written by bandleader Ketch Secor and bluegrass virtuoso Molly Tuttle, with guest vocals from Old Crow Medicine Show co-founder Willie Watson.
About the debut single, Ketch Secor explains: “This is one of those rearview songs where objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. 25 years of making music on the road means you’re always coming back to the same places as a different person; there’s a reminder of your past self and the choices you made back when. Molly Tuttle and I wrote this one together and when it was through, I asked my Old Crow co-founder Willie Watson to make his first appearance on an Old Crow record in years. After all, this is a song about amends, of bygones being bygones, and of renewal.”
“Miles Away” marks the first time Willie Watson has recorded with Old Crow Medicine Show in over 10 years. He will hit the road with the band this fall, performing as an opening act in addition to joining them on stage.
While songs like “Miles Away” embody a bittersweet gravity, much of Jubilee harnesses the unruly exuberance that Old Crow Medicine Show unfailingly channels into their live show. The new album finds the band doubling down on their commitment to creating roots music that bears an undeniable urgency, encompassing everything from jug-band tunes to Irish folk songs to exultant gospel jams. The result is a wildly expansive body of work showcasing the dazzling musicality and poetic yet powerfully trenchant storytelling that has made Old Crow Medicine Show one of the most potent and influential forces in American roots music for more than two decades.
End of the World is the newest single from Canada’s West Coast Roots Reggae veterans, the Phonosonics. Historically focusing on Rocksteady and Early Reggae, the band began internalizing a more 80’s-inspired sound when they were tapped to backup Sister Nancy in 2019 and subsequently Yellowman in 2020 (sadly cancelled due to COVID 19). Rehearsing these sets allowed the band to branch out into a new vibe, and one inspired by the events of our time.
This new track is a darker one, but still with a positive and conscious message: “the sickness divides us, together the cure, no on should be alone at the end of the world.” With an infectious hypnotic rhythm, spacey dubbed-out harmonies and blazing horn lines, it is sure to please on the radio and in the dancehall.
The world has become divided, but we can still come together united. As the lyrics say “there’s no storm we can’t weather if we come together as one.” Hoping all of our beloved fans and DJ friends can come together and enjoy this new one from the Phonosonics.
M. Ward is sharing 'too young to die' feat. First Aid Kit today, the final pre-release track from his upcoming album ‘Supernatural Thing’, out this Friday. In the song’s new video, Ward is a security guard working the graveyard shift who starts to see the ladies of First Aid Kit appear in his security camera’s video feed.
"First Aid Kit are sisters from Stockholm, and when they open their mouths, something amazing happens,” Ward said of working with them. “It was a great thrill to go to Stockholm and record a few songs there. The sound from blood-related harmony singers is impossible to get any other way – The Everly Brothers, The Delmores, The Louvins, The Carters, The Söderbergs - all have the same kind of feeling in their vocals."
In addition to First Aid Kit, the album is filled with guest stars - Shovels & Rope, Scott McMicken, Neko Case, Jim James and others — who enliven the album with surprises. Eight of the album’s ten songs are Ward originals, but there is also an unusual Bowie choice, “I Can’t Give Everything Away” from Blackstar, and a live rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist.” “Bowie and Johnston are constant sources of inspiration for me, have been for I don’t know how many years,” Ward offered.
‘Supernatural Thing’ is M. Ward’s first new music in three years, but in 2020 M. Ward released two albums. On April's ‘Migration Stories’, Ward was inspired by the immigration journeys he’d heard from friends or read about in newspapers, as well as what his own grandfather had to go through when immigrating to the US from Mexico. For the December album ‘Think of Spring’ he covered classic Billie Holiday tunes, as she is an artist he’s greatly inspired by. “Instead of the small jazz bands or orchestration she relied on, M. Ward pares the songs to just his voice and guitars, making them sound even starker than they once did,” said Rolling Stone.
The first single taken from the forthcoming LP ‘Twentieth Century’, Keep Your Head On is a duet between Hue (The Pooh Sticks) and Amelia (Talulah Gosh/Heavenly), with a seriously rousing, singalong chorus.
Set in a humble Adult Education class, it’s an anthem for everyone who fears for the Twenty-First Century – a song for anyone who’s struggling to keep their head above the rising tide of digital disinformation and political deceit.
It’s positive and it’s upbeat, despite the odds. It might remind you a bit of Britpop hit Common People - although, in Keep Your Head On, the woman has a voice, and she’s more interested in education than getting off with her optimistic male counterpart.
Keep Your Head On will be released on all digital platforms and as a very limited lathe-cut 7” single. Only three copies of the physical single will be made available. The first will be offered as a raffle prize at Swansea Sound’s gig at The Lexington on 30 June. The second will be given at random to a customer who pre-orders the album on Bandcamp. The last copy will be given away at the Twentieth Century album launch gig at Rough Trade East on 9th September.
The new album ‘Twentieth Century’ will be released on 8th September (Vinyl LP, CD, Digital). It features twelve glorious bursts of indiepop agitprop!
Self-taught Calgary artist TAYLR is no stranger to self reflection and deep internal exploration that bold, technicolor songwriting is born from. Taking bits and pieces of R&B, jazz, folk, and indie pop, “the thinking person’s songwriter” succeeds in creating hearty melodic recipes.
Their single “The Blue” is a gloomy minimal yet empathetic single inspired by a previous relationship that was bound in deliberate aversion.
“The two of us knew things needed to change and work needed to be done on ourselves and what we had built, but we made a silent agreement to put the blinders on and focus all of that energy into renovating our home. I wanted the song title to be the exact shade of blue that we painted our kitchen cupboards during this escapade but it felt too niche..”
Croatian electronic-pop singer and producer M.Rider is back with her brand-new single and video for ‘Little Things’. The single is taken from her forthcoming album, due to drop later this year.
‘Little Things’ started off as a sonic adventure on a Prophet 12 synth. From there, M.Rider created a beat on her Roland TR-8 – the usual four-on-the-floor house beat – which inspired the first version of the song. The single explores ambivalent, evolving feelings underlying in relationships that just aren't meant to last. Illuminating emotions that quietly simmer beneath the surface, the track indicates something is amiss before erupting like a volcano. With hints of New York underground house music, the final version (co-produced with Ant Whiting and featuring synths by Vincent Taurelle (Air) and violin by Lucy Wilkins (Bryan Ferry, Tindersticks)), encompasses a raw and punchy house track edge that has been softened with her signature dreamy, melodic pop sound.
Speaking of the new single, M.Rider said: “It's a song about all the little things that are felt but are often ignored within a relationship. We keep these feelings, this voice of intuition, buried somewhere underneath and we keep going with the story we want to believe in... And these little things, little signs, quietly whisper the truth to us – if only we would listen.”
Joanna Petkiewicz (concept, direction, additional footage) explained the accompanying music video: “The idea for the video came from a format of theatrical monologue (in English ‘soliloquy’, where the audience hears the actors thoughts). Visual inspirations draw upon Flemish baroque portraits that are only bust-length, and where characters stare into space or gaze mischievously or alluringly in a direct manner at a viewer, which makes it feel more like a conversation or exchange. Another big inspiration was also the flower motif, that originally also came from still-life flower paintings from the same era as the portraits. What they have in common is very often the lighting and the blurring of physical context as they often have a very dark background, which allows imagination to add a story. I was also inspired by some of Sally Potter’s Orlando headshots, that follow similar aesthetics and she translated them beautifully into a moving image.
I wanted to retain the lyrical intimacy of the song by slowing it down visually so it contrasts with its dance rhythm. The character is mostly quite still, like in the paintings…Such an effect was achieved thanks to filming and editing by Robin Lochmann, a very talented cinematographer from Ireland. We chose a vintage look which also opposes the atmosphere of a modern electronic pop song.”
Loupe - Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? (Album).
Amsterdam indie rock quartet Loupe share their hotly anticipated debut album Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? - released June 16th via Excelsior Records. The band are also set to tour the UK later this year with indie-rock breakouts Lovejoy.
Recorded with producer Arne van Petegem (Moss, Styrofoam) and mixed by Beau Sorenson (Death Cab For Cutie, Sparklehorse), the album showcases the bands rich and intricate soundscapes as well as their effortlessly gliding lead vocals, catchy melodies and captivating, story telling lyricism. Atmospheric yet punchy - packing musical depth and beauty, the 13-track release showcases the band's ability to create truly spellbinding music.
The band’s singer and lyricist Julia (vocalist) explores themes of young adulthood, life in the big city and human relationships over a weave of rousing harmonies, free-flowing rhythms and expressive vocals. Besides Julia, the band consists of Jasmine guitar, Lana bass and Annemarie van der Born drums.
Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? is an exploration of growing up in the modern age, both within the songwriting and through collaborations with artists from other disciplines. The vibrant collage-like album artwork created by Ukrainian graphic designer Karaska shows the band standing on top of a building, as colors and images spread around them.
According to Julia, much of the material revolves around finding something to hold on to amidst the heat of the hustle and bustle, and adjusting to a new busy environment full of impulses. “For me it was all a kind of transition, with 'on the one hand 'the new life and all the cool things that come with it. And on the other hand, the uncertainty of being alone in the big city and the adult world.”
Sara Lew’s new single ‘Shady Light’ is set to shine on the earth’s surface with its release on June 16th, 2023, as a precursor to her upcoming album ‘LOUD’, which she is getting ready to release in autumn 2023. ‘Shady Light’ is the second single to come from the new album, following 'Out of Nowhere', which picked up a lot of playlist additions around the world, as well as and airplay on Amazing Radio and Louder Than War Radio and a video premiere with Vents Magazine.
‘Shady Light’ is a real indie ballad. It's about standing together in a relationship, constantly learning from each other, and sharing with each other and continuing to do so even though life is rushing by with different goals and ambitions.
On the song, Sara explains, “It’s about standing together in a relationship even in a heavy storm when everything else is falling apart around you. It’s about daring to experiment and be vulnerable and stand on new land together. And though there still must be food on the table and the family must endure, to have the ability to seek refuge together in the very close moments, in love, in moments and special spaces of timeless being, where everything else is suspended.”
“I wrote the song after a long summer holiday where there was finally some peace, after a long and intense period.", She adds.
Sara Lew's upcoming album “LOUD” is all based around the development of life. It’s about when young people become adults and experience personal confrontations with the past, in which family stories of shame and taboo culture arise from the subconscious. It explores how to rein in anger and grief, to keep your head above water and be a role model for your own children when life all falls apart and how to protect love and togetherness when everyday life rolls on. Essentially, it’s an album about living in the present moment with love for life's stories, memories, moments of happiness but also life’s unforeseen, manifold trip wires.
Bergen, Norway-based indie-rock rising star Bo Milli has returned with her new single "Making Friends" ahead of a busy schedule of festivals this summer. The new single follows a string of standalone tracks released across the past 12 months which has seen her tipped as one the next breakout musicians to come out of Norway.
Re-creating the chaos and indiscipline of nights out in Bergen, "Making Friends" tracks the expectations, contradictions and drama of nocturnal social interactions through a haze of tumultuous indie-rock.
Co-produced by Odd Martin (Sigrid, Sløtface) and Magnus Skylstad (AURORA), "Making Friends" opens with a rumbling bass line, with Bo Milli recalling precise moments of discourse amidst the cold Bergen night life: "I've been wondering when it will get under my skin / I bet you're waiting for it to kick in".
Speaking more on the inspiration behind "Making Friends", Bo Milli said: "The song is about a yearning to connect with people and have some sort of meaningful experience motivating a night out. It's about a shallow but euphoric feeling after a certain amount of drinks that every stranger in the room is my friend, all the while I've lost track of the friends I actually wanted to get to know better."
Brooklyn composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cassie Wieland released the lead single "I don't mind" from her upcoming debut LP as Vines, titled Birthday Party, out August 18th.
There’s dejection in “I don’t mind,” but also a growing assuredness. The first time Wieland sings “I’ll fall apart if I need to, I don’t mind,” her voice sounds tender and soft, even a little distant. But with each emphatic repetition of the simple-yet-potent lyric, which acts as the backbone of the song, her voice fills out, growing into a full chord accompanied by steady piano and glimmering electronics. It’s not unlike the moment when you realize you need to feel the feelings you’re bottling up—and the rush of calm that comes once they’ve finally been released.
Wieland founded Vines as a way to break out of the performer-composer hierarchy, opting for more collaboration and a closer connection to her fans. Vines has already made waves on Tiktok covering indie pop favorites using a vocoder and uniquely processed vocals. She continues this trend on Birthday Party, including a heart-wrenching, some how even more melancholic version of "The World at Large" by Modest Mouse.
Liverpool singer Ellie Burke is using her university music dissertation 'Filtered Reality' to raise awareness about mental health. ‘Filtered Reality’ takes you into Ellie’s world and insecurities caused by social media and how it has affected her in a negative way, from the filtered images, stories and narratives that lead to unrealistic expectations and lifestyles.
Ellie Burke wrote Filtered Reality as part of her university music dissertation to raise awareness about the negative impact of social media. Ellie took a specific approach by researching individual accounts of people who have suffered and are still suffering from mental health problems due to cyberbullying and comparison to filtered realities portrayed online.
"One girl spoke about how social media exasperated her eating disorder due to the negative content surrounding her disorder that was easily accessible. Another account discussed how cyberbullying ruined their mental health and wellbeing. One influencer spoke about how she suffered with anxiety due to Instagram because she was sharing her life in unhealthy ways, ways that weren’t the real her, and people were influenced by her unrealistic lifestyle. This is where my idea for ‘Filtered Reality’ came from." - Ellie Burke
The Pink Stones - Baby, I’m Still Right Here (Feat. Nikki Lane).
The Pink Stones will release You Know Who on June 30 via Normaltown/New West Records. The 11-song set was co-produced by Henry Barbe & frontman Hunter Pinkston and features guest appearances by Nikki Lane, Teddy and the Rough Riders, John James Tourville of The Deslondes, and Annie Leeth. You Know Who is the follow up to their 2021 debut Introducing…The Pink Stones, which was met with critical acclaim. The Pink Stones, a six-piece outfit creating some of the most shimmering, melancholic Southern rock in years...Introducing doesn’t just tell us who The Pink Stones are, it gets us tickled for what they’ll do next."
The Pink Stones previously released the Joshua Shoemaker-directed video for the first single, “Who’s Laughing Now?” which features the actor, writer, and comedian Chris Crofton. The song, which features Teddy and the Rough Riders, hides its aching heart behind a big sing-along chorus. The band also previously shared the album highlight “Someone You Can’t Move” as well.
Made up entirely of Athens musicians who play in other bands around town (including former members of the Drive-By Truckers and The Glands), The Pink Stones match their frontman’s vast musical vocabulary while adding their own twists to spacey honkytonk, pedal-to-the-metal trucker anthems, and ecstatic gospel.
“This record was me trying to take everything I love as a listener and a player and shove it all into one thing without it sounding random,” says Pinkston, former punk turned cosmic country auteur, describing the boisterous, ambitious You Know Who. Ostensibly they play country music, yet all the pedal steel sobs, the two-steppin’ rhythms, twangy harmonies, and lyrics about broken hearts and long days on the road are launchpads for wild experiments and unexpected stylistic forays. “There’s obviously a lot of country and rock in our music, but there’s a lot of gospel and soul and psych and dub. I really wanted to get all of those things living peacefully together in one record.” Especially notable is The Pink Stones’ ability to intertwine joy, heartache and self-deprecating humor in songs. It’s a classic hat trick of country music that is all too easy to overplay and seem forced by modern Americana aspirants, but one which the band crafts perfectly.
Tel-Aviv based singer songwriter MARBL is releasing her new single "A Song for Mom", that is part of the artist's unique piano project. "Mom has always let me paint my unique trails to walk along. She knows best how to plant the confidence and passion in me, to do whatever my heart desires the most, and quiet down the voices of fear.
She is an eternal home to me, where I can find endless support, listening, and unconditional love. "A Song for Mom", is the least I can give her as a gift." - Moria Or MARBL's music has its own widely spread range of influences like Sufjan Stevens, Laura Marling, Norah Jones, Big Thief, Iron & Wine and more.
MARBL has already drawn the attention of dominant radio stations, music bloggers, journalists & publicists in France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, the USA, Japan, and more, and hit some big official Spotify playlists around the world, alongside leading TV commercials and campaigns. Nowadays, MARBL is releasing a unique piano project, in which she offers a glance into her very first musical passion - the piano, that draws the likes of Norah Jones, Tori Amos, Kate Bush.
Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure.
This week the band share the new single 'Tibet'. The single follows the atmospheric 'Love You Baby All The Time' and experimental slowly building "Madhouse Breakout Multitool" and continues to expand the band's sound without losing their lovable characteristics. The band is playing Roskilde Festival on June 26th, a festival they've attended many times and as so many danes before them, partly grown up at.
About the track, Kindsight says: "Our most political love song to date, Tibet celebrates the wildest forms of conformity and anti-self-realization."
In 2022, the band released their debut LP via Rama Lama Records to praise such as "your new favourite band". Titled "Swedish Punk", it's an album packed with charming and infectiously catchy noise-jangle-pop melodies full of exuberant optimism and coming-of-age tales inspired by acts such as Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Snail Mail and Big Thief. The album was followed by tour dates in Scandinavia, UK and Germany as well as several shows at SXSW.
Atop jangling guitars, Nina Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin, leaving the listened renched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. There’s not a single song that would feel out of place in an 00’s independent movie. The band possess an unmistakable talent for crafting disarmingly buoyant yet achingly nostalgic indie-rock songs based on the everyday.
In May, the New York-based songwriter Allegra Kreiger announced her signing to Double Double Whammy (Florist, Babehoven, Hatchie) for the release of her new LP I Keep My Feet on The Fragile Plane (out July 21st). The first single from the album, "Nothing In This World Ever Stays Still," attracted immediate attention, earning praise from outlets like FADER, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, Exclaim, NYLON and Paste, who called Krieger "one of the best working songwriters."
This past Sunday Krieger played the release show for Greg Mendez' new LP at Purgatory in Brooklyn, and this week she's sharing a new single entitled "Lingering." "Lingering" neatly captures the chaotic possibility of city living. Rich with little details – black mold on an apartment ceiling, the smell of piss and garbage – the track has a timeless quality, and showcases Krieger's ability to imbue the outlines of everyday experience with a deep emotional resonance.
"Lingering is about new love, entering that fragile plane, shared pleasure, returning to the stasis of a room, of an apartment in a city that is always moving," Krieger explains to NYLON. "Objects sitting and hanging. Wanting something, but not wanting to want anything. Crossing the street. A nice day, a nice moment."
Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter Sandy Baileyhas unveiled “Get The Message Through,” the lead single from Daughter Of Abraham, her first LP with Red Parlor Records, set for release on August 18th.
“The latest single from Sandy Bailey -a soft-country power ballad about mortality and heartbreak and everyday existentialism -is the kind of song that country music was built on,” says Hollerin their premiere. “Delivered with a faux breeziness, it’s both painfully real and bleakly comical. Her almost throwaway, conversational delivery making the lines land even harder as she ponders her grown up children leaving home, while the song slowly spirals towards a deeper truth about how disconnected and isolated we become from each other as adults....
It’s like if an AI music generator had been tasked to come up with a Carole King song that perfectly tapped into the futility of doom scrolling and the existential dread of the pre-apocalypse.”“A headline caught my eye in The Wall Street Journalthat read ‘Moms in Middle Age: Rarely Alone, Often Online and Increasingly Lonely,’” Bailey told Holler. “I thought about my love/hate relationship with social media and wrote a song about the irony of the current environment that we live in, where we are more connected than ever through the internet but also lonelier than ever.”For the video, Bailey put a team together from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
“We knew we wanted the video to have a throwback 70's feel,” Bailey explained to Holler. “In going through a bunch of vintage stock footage for ideas, the director Sofi Taylor was inspired by a video of a clean, empty kitchen. The contrast of a once vibrant house now unlived in was our inspiration for showing change, loneliness, and the passage of time.”
Entrepreneur, filmmaker and bestselling author Scott Blum has announced his next venture, FOUND, a US-based independent record label focusing on the contemporary music scene of Iceland. The label’s first signings include jazz vocal duo Silva & Steini, composer Magnús Jóhann, and punk band GRÓA.
FOUND is marking the occasion with the release of the music video for Silva & Steini’s “If It Was” from their debut album More Than You Know. The popular song already has 2 million streams on Spotify and was written by Alan Hampton (Andrew Bird, Fiona Apple, Sufjan Stevens, etc.).
The video is directed by noted Icelandic visual artist Anna Maggý and was shot in gorgeous black & white at the unique "Library of Water" location in Stykkishólmur, Iceland, a fine art installation by Roni Horn featuring large tubes of water from glaciers around Iceland. The dreamlike visuals echo the lyrical themes of memory, loss and rebirth from the evocative song. "Anna Maggý used her unique mind and talent to create and capture something magical," notes singer Silva. "She manages to make her work one of a kind because she is so passionate and knows exactly what she wants in the moment."
William The Conqueror have just unveiled the video to their new single ‘The Bruises’. Taken from their forthcoming album ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, out 28th July on Chrysalis Records, the track is the follow-up to last month’s single ‘The Puppet and the Puppeteer’. Produced by the band in a playground of vintage gear and mixed by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender, Kasabian), the ten tracks on ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’ marry earworm tunes with insistent, imperious, soaring rock shapes, punctuated by chorus hooks that are simultaneously nuanced and anthemic. William The Conqueror, who performed to a packed room at The Great Escape last month, head out on a European tour with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats next week. The band will embark on a headline tour of the UK in October.
"My favourite kind of songwriting is when you have no control over what's happening” explains frontman Ruarri. “The song just arrives, finding its way through your fingers onto the fret board, as the pen wanders the page and somehow says everything you didn't realise you needed to say. The Bruises was like that. It wasn't and then all of a sudden, it was." Bassist Naomi adds, “'The Bruises' will stay with you all day. And with a verse that catchy, you don’t really need a chorus. Which is lucky.”
‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, very nearly didn’t happen. Following the imposition of lockdown restrictions, Joseph found himself cocooned at home in Cornwall, ruminating on an uncertain creative future, watching on as his wife Mandy, a valiant mental health social worker, engaged with the all-too-real dilemmas of the pandemic-riven here and now. Her example motivated Joseph to become a temporary care worker, an experience which would provide renewed focus and influence the songwriting on the new album.
Amsterdam-based musician Sofie Winterson shares her new album Southern Skies co-produced by Benny Sings via Excelsior Recordings featuring previous singles "Jump", "Lost You To A Boy" and new single, closing track "Perfect Goodybe". The project is a continuation and expansion of her and Sings' 2019 collaborative EP Moral, but also offers a glimpse into what Sofie can do when left to her own devices.
Created in primarily Benny Sings' canal-hugging studio in Amsterdam, the upcoming album, Southern Skies was formed as an act of stripping-back and growing as a songwriter. Sofie’s last full-length album Sophia Electric instead acted as a way to expand her work as a producer. Her varied influences, from the soul and folk she grew up on to the dream-pop of her university years can all be heard as part of the album’s eclectic palette which leans in a more minimal direction than before.
Sofie says: "In the opening track ‘Hours’ I sing the words ‘Southern Skies’, that’s where the title of this record comes from. From a very young age I had a helicopter view on life. I, for example, was well aware of the fact that I was too young to experience certain things the way I would probably do when I would be older. Like I realised that I wasn’t yet ready to see the full value in those beautiful ‘Southern Skies’ that I saw when driving through the south of Europe.
The songs are about passing time, the wish for boredom, feeling helpless towards choices your friends make, about doing something better or different and about meeting new people and creating an image of that person from your own perspective before getting to know them. So the songs are written from this helicopter view and by seeing it this way and being able to put it into words in my songs, life makes sense to me."
“Naomi Psalm is of the rare breed of singer/songwriters that with just a guitar and a voice, she can transport you into the emotion of the lyric, and that is not a common thing at all”- Bernie Larsen Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/musician (guitarist) and has produced for Melissa Etheridge, Jackson Browne, Rickie Lee Jones, and Lucinda Williams.
This free spirited Florida girl began turning her poetry into songs in her early teens. Yet highly influenced by the 90's female indie scene, she has a sound of her own. Her powerful vocals reminiscent of Alanis Morissette will move you as you absorb each lyric as if it were written for you. Naomi’s songs have bits of introspection, as well as fun and quirky twists.
She has released 4 full length CDs, 2 EPs , 5 singles, and several music videos. Her latest full length record was released in September 2022. Her award winning music has taken her to 32 countries as well as countless tours in the Northwest. She currently resides in Boise, Idaho. Fantasy is a self-produced song about romantic obsessions
Pretty have released their 2nd single "Food For The Moon" from their upcoming EP "Citrus Magic" (out July 28).
Pretty are people who appear onstage with lots of noise and then leave. This half-silly, half-serious sentence summarizes the band’s ethic and sound, from their early inspiration by Toronto’s 2010s-era DIY punk scene, to their current fascination with psychedelic sound and culture, elements that fuse into a highly distinctive, dark and frenzied sonic landscape. The Torontonian band had a busy 2022, recording their second EP and follow-up to their debut album Sertraline Dream (2020); playing headline sets to increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds and being featured acts for Exclaim! Magazine’s Class of 2022, Canadian Music Week and Sarnia’s Empty Fest. If you dig getting warped and discovering another side of yourself, you won’t want to miss Pretty.
Torin: “The title comes from this phrase I found in a book, something about the moon living off of our emotions, basically farming us in a sense for sustenance - very occult. I can’t remember what book it came from and have been driving myself insane trying to find it again. The song itself was written in the days following a break up, working with the feeling of futility, loss, and emotional torture that comes with that sort of thing. It’s two people who are both dealing with their own things and it gets in the way of them being together - and hey, what does it matter anyways, we’re all just food for the moon in the end."
Since Frank, indie singer-songwriter Amy Stroup's fourth solo album, out June 23, works to find a way to be okay on the inside; relatably, Stroup struggles with the heaviness that lives inside all of us—and then finds a way to move beyond it. “Valley,” out now, introduces listeners to the album with its resplendent strings, and posits the idea that shifting perspectives and remembering small joys, like the people (and pets) we love, can be the key to creating a calm inner life.
Since Frank and its 10 songs find a cohesive sound thanks to producer Chad Copelin (LANY, Broncho, Ben Rector) and his expert hand at transforming live tracking into an expansive finished product, with drums by James McAlister (The National, Taylor Swift, Sufjan Stevens).
Known for her ability to tap into rich, emotional honesty and vivid storytelling, Stroup wrote these songs with herself in mind—a change from the hundreds she's written for TV and film. The self-proclaimed “song farmer” is closing in on 1,000 sync credits, which include backing moments on How I Met Your Father, This Is Us, Shameless and Netflix's upcoming Choose Love, among many others.
Claudia Cappelletti is an Italian singer/songwriter whose music has taken her around the world, giving her the nickname of “the Nomad of the world”. Having graduated from the CPM Music Academy in Milan, she then went on to sing at luxury hotels internationally, wowing audiences with her charismatic and explosive performances, before making her way to the States where she lived for several years. Her time spent there is where her sound became influenced by American rock and indie bands including Band of Horses, Bleachers and The Killers.
Over the last few years, Claudia Cappelletti focused on her own music, creating a new five-track EP, alongside acclaimed producer Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Vance Joy, Brandie Carlile, and many others) at the Bear Creek Studio in Seattle.
Her latest single “Mine” showcases some of her strongest and most empowering work to date. Speaking on women’s rights, Claudia Cappelletti joins the fight for equality, sharing, “As I traveled as a singer around the world so many times I got to live in underdeveloped countries where many women and girls continue to experience discrimination because of their sex and gender. I can’t deny the anger I felt for the injustice those women have to face in their everyday’s life.”
“Mine” is Claudia Cappelletti’s way of inspiring and uniting all the people around the world to fight for the rights for women to live free from violence and discrimination, to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to be educated, to own property, to vote and to earn an equal wage. The lyrics give a voice to women who can’t express their own voice. The track showcases real speeches from politicians and girls around the world who talk about women rights, including Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai who said “I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard. Those who have fought for their rights. Their right to live in peace. Their right to be treated with dignity. Their right to equality of opportunity. Their right to be educated."
Buzzy Americana artist-to-watch Jeremie Albino has released his highly anticipated sophomore album, Tears You Hide. No Depression has called it “perfection,” and “one of the best releases to come out this year.” Albino also recently announced a Fall U.S. Headline Tour, and his is a show you won’t want to miss. The series of dates kicks off October 10 in Boston and will make stops in New York City, DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, Atlanta and more.
Recorded entirely live off the floor, Tears You Hide is a catalog of feelings from time-passed that serves up an ode to family, resilience, and the road ahead. The deeply personal nature traverses Albino’s development as an artist and captivating songwriter.
The artist found support from the team instrumental in the production of his earlier work - The Rosehall Band, his original backing band, and Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes), who co-produced his critically acclaimed debut full length. The importance of working with a supportive and collaborative community is something that he knows the value of not only in his music but also from his days working as a farmer in Prince Edward County.”
Earlier this month, Jermeie released a captivating live performance video for “You I’m Waiting On” that was shot and directed by longtime creative partner and collaborator Mark Klassen. The video transports viewers back in time to the historic Owl’s Club in Toronto. The old legion hall, frozen in time, serves as the ultimate backdrop and perfectly pairs Jeremie’s soulful golden sound with the memories painted on the walls.
